FTP8.6 Informed Written Consent for General Surgery in Tertiary Care Center: A Closed Loop Audit

Abstract

Abstract Aim The aim of the study was to perform an audit of standard consent form in which patients sign prior surgical intervention in our institute. This audit is compared to ‘Code of Practice for Surgeons’ standard developed by Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Methods A pre-interventional cycle was conducted to evaluate the standard of consent of patients underwent surgery obtained using electronic records in the Department of General Surgery. This was performed over a period of one week. Following the analysis of collected data, teaching sessions was given to non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) obtaining consent for patients underwent surgical procedure which include colorectal surgery, upper gastrointestinal surgery, breast and endocrine surgery. A post-intervention cycle was conducted to assess for any improvement in the standard of consent. Results A total of 50 consents forms were obtained in the pre-intervention cycle. Patient’s name, date of birth (DOB), patient’s identifier (PID) was correctly labelled in all the consent forms (100%). However, only 38 (76%) consents forms were correctly documented without using abbreviations or acronyms. In the post-interventional cycle, 75 consents forms were obtained. All (100%) consent forms were correctly labelled included patient’s name, DOB and PID. A total of 65 (87%) consents forms were correctly labelled without using abbreviations or acronyms. Conclusion This audit demonstrated that standard of consent can be significantly improved by general surgery NCHDs with virtual education sessions. Intervention like education sessions can be informative and improve the documentation of consent forms to optimise patient safety.